Click here to view a slideshow of images from the making of Count Me In!

Practice your numbers in English and Spanish when you count the beautiful dancers, playful musicians, and happy children of Oaxaca as the Guelaguetza parade goes by! Pronounced Gal-a-get-zah, the lively celebration—full of traditional dancing and music—takes place every July deep in the heart of southern Mexico. ONE band leader with a big white balloon! DOS hombres with firecrackers! THREE musicians! FOUR giants! All exquisitely handcrafted by the Mexican folk art masters Guillermina, Josefina, Irene, and Concepción Aguilar, in collaboration with author and scholar Cynthia Weill. Bienvenidos! Welcome to the parade!

Cynthia Weill is a professor and mentor to teachers at Columbia University's Teachers College. She also owns a non-profit—Aid to Women Artisans—that promotes the craftwork of artisans from developing countries. Count Me In is her fourth book in the First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art Series.

The Aguilar Sisters are Mexico's most beloved artisans. They learned how to make clay figurines from their mother Doña Isaura. These lively independent women are considered great masters of Mexican folk art and have been visited by Queen Elizabeth, Queen Sofia of Spain, various Mexican presidents, and Nelson Rockefeller. Their humorous ceramics of the people of their town and state are in museum collections the world over.

Kirkus Reviews

Playful ceramics enact a traditional Mexican festival parade, from uno to diez. “íAquí viene el desfile! / íCuenta conmigo!” With this buoyant invitation, readers are ushered into the traditional Oaxacan festival of Guelaguetza … there’s no denying the effervescence of the event. The Aguilar sisters’ work appears in museums all over the world, and this book marks their first collaboration. [T]his peek into Mexico’s art and traditions is certainly one of the most joyous [children will] encounter.

[A]n irresistible bilingual picture book for those still learning their numbers. Set in Oaxaca at its annual Guelaguetza parade, the book counts the festival-goers — a crowd of hilarious clay figures by Mexican folk art masters. It's darling.

Unlike the others in Cynthia Weill's series, Count Me In! A Parade of Mexican Folk Art Numbers in English and Spanish features all humans, decked out to participate in a festival called “Guelaguetza,” which is Zapotec for “to share.” Except for the initial two-page spread, which shows a line of people beginning the parade (Here comes the parade! / ¡Aquí viene el desfile!), all of the other illustrations (along with captions that will entice the youngest of listeners) land on the right-hand pages on solid backgrounds with only the numbers 1-10 in English and Spanish. Opposite “four / cuatro,” for instance, is this: The giants are my favorite! See the person wearing the costume peeking through from inside? / ¡A mí me encantan los gigantes! ¿Ves a la persona que lleva el disfraz mirándonos desde adentro?